


Lacey Gold and the Terrible, Awful, No-Good, Very Bad Day

by cyrene



Series: Family, and Other Traumatic Things [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cursed Storybrooke (Once Upon a Time), F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22981276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyrene/pseuds/cyrene
Summary: Lacey is sick as hell of her life, but there's nothing she can do about it. Until a strange family comes to town.
Relationships: Baelfire | Neal Cassidy/Emma Swan, Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Family, and Other Traumatic Things [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651243
Comments: 10
Kudos: 46





	Lacey Gold and the Terrible, Awful, No-Good, Very Bad Day

**Author's Note:**

> Um, I'm basically writing this as I feel it, so some things that happened before will be explained later. Remember when I asked you to hold my hand? I am a disaster-writer.

Every morning, Lacey woke in her apartment above the library and turned on the coffee maker. She ate her breakfast while reading the paper, then went downstairs to open the library. She didn’t actually need a job, she had plenty of money, but she didn’t like to think about that. Better to run the library and keep herself busy, so those thoughts would not consume her every waking moment.

She was in a fight with her father, and they were not speaking. Moe French had said something rude about _him_ , specifically about her needing to move on and how _he_ hadn’t been worth it even when _he_ was there, and Lacey could not abide that. They had argued, and she had left, and now they weren’t speaking. It was bad enough without her own father adding to it.

Everyone in town knew about Lacey. That was the price of living in a small town. Everyone knew that her husband was missing, or had run off, or died, or whatever, it really depended on who you asked. Left her with nothing but a fortune and a giant pink house that she couldn’t stay in because it brought back too many memories. Everyone knew, and everyone had their opinions on it.

Lacey thought everyone and their opinions could go straight to hell. He was coming back some day. She didn’t know where he was, or what had happened, but she knew that much.

Nobody came into the library all day, not until after school when Daniela Mills stopped by for a new book to read. That was a kid after her own heart. Dani took no shit and could go through books like most people went through toilet paper. Lacey shut down early after she left, so she could go upstairs, get in her pyjamas, and cry herself to sleep.

It was a pretty normal day, all things considered.

*

The next day, things changed. Lacey remembered she had an appointment with Dr. Hopper in the afternoon, so she would have to shut the library for a little while. There was no one else in town to watch it, so thems were the breaks. Mayor Mills came in while she was closing up, demanding to know where Dani was, looking at her suspiciously like Lacey knew or something. Lacey asked her politely to leave, because she’d always found Regina Mills much more tractable when you told her “please,” and headed down to the psychiatrist’s office.

“Lacey!” Archie said with a big smile on his face, like they were two friends meeting for coffee. She liked to pretend they were, and so she gave him the usual hug.

“How are you today?” she asked, sipping at the too-hot coffee he gave her.

“I’m well, and you? Have you had time to make that list we talked about?”

“I think I want to travel. Do a tour of the U.K.,” she said carefully, thoughtfully. Her husband had been from Scotland, and before he had... whatever... he had promised to take her there someday. May as well go by herself, why not? What was she waiting for?

Lacey and Archie talked about that, and other things, and then her hour of therapy was up.

She went home and did some research into her travel plans, but it got to be too much. She went to bed and cried herself to sleep.

*

When Lacey woke up the next morning, things were different. She could feel it. She couldn’t tell what it was if her life depended on it, but _something_ was different. So instead of making her breakfast, she went down to Granny’s diner, to see if anyone else felt it too.

There was a hush when she entered the diner, but she was used to that. Anywhere Lacey went, people whispered. Small minds in a small town, with nothing else to talk about. She held her head high and sat at the bar. At least Ruby was happy to see her.

“Family came into town today with – get this – Dani Mills in tow,” Ruby said conversationally as she poured Lacey’s coffee. “Apparently she ran away to visit her internet friend, their son, and the parents brought him back.”

“Are they staying?” Lacey asked, curious as hell, because no one ever came to Storybrooke.

“Yeah. They just rented two rooms at Granny’s. One for them and their boy, and one for their roommate, who is a _fox_ b-t-w. He has a _motorcycle_.”

Lacey laughed, because Ruby had always been more than a little boy-crazy.

“Well, I’m glad they brought my biggest patron back safely. Where are they from?”

“New York City,” Ruby said wistfully, and Lacey knew the feeling. The two of them had always wished they could travel the world, but had never had the opportunity.

“Wow. She ran all the way to New York? How?” Lacey couldn’t imagine Regina Mills giving her kid an allowance _that_ big.

“Stole Mary-Margaret Blanchard’s credit card, apparently.”

Ruby kept talking, but Lacey wasn’t paying attention, because right then they all strode into the diner. They looked ready for a battle, which was interesting to say the least. Two dark-haired men, a woman with long blonde hair, and a boy of no more than ten or eleven, who bounced around excitedly, chattering a mile a minute.

“Henry,” one of the men said gently, laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder, “be cool, bro.”

They seemed to have noticed all the staring, and were looking uncomfortable. Lacey could sympathize and so, with barely a thought, she stood up and walked over to their table.

“Hi!” she said cheerfully. “I’m Lacey, the librarian here in Storybrooke. Just wanted to say hi and invite you all over. If you need anything, I can help. I’m your gal Friday!”

Nobody laughed ( _he_ would have) but they looked pleasant enough anyway, except for the boy, who was peering at her suspiciously and flipping through a very familiar book.

“Dani gave you her book?” she asked, surprised. “Wow, you must be a pretty special friend. Dani never goes anywhere without that book, not since Miss Blanchard gave it to her.” She wondered how much Dani had told him about the book, and a twinge of sadness plucked at her heart.

“I’m trying to figure out who you are,” the boy admitted.

“I’m Lacey Gold. The Librarian,” she reminded him.

“No, no, in the book.”

“Henry,” the blonde woman whined, with the tone of a mother whose patience has been thoroughly tried.

“Ah, I see she’s told you about the curse, then,” Lacey said lightly. Wouldn’t do to crush two kids’ imaginations, after all. “Dani’s never been able to figure me out either, if that helps any. Come by the library. We have all sorts of fairy tales for you two to look over.” She smiled at them, and waved goodbye.

She was right. Something was very different about today.

*

The family from New York didn’t leave. Rumor was, Emma Swan was sticking around to do wellness checks on Dani Mills, on suspicion of abuse. Lacey didn’t know what to think about that. Regina Mills was a hard woman, sure, and a very strict mother, but Lacey didn’t think she would really abuse her own child. Maybe it was just that she’d seen the mayor’s face when her daughter was missing – like something inside her had broken irreparably.

Dani and Henry spent a lot of time in the library, going over their book and whatever Lacey had in stock on fairy tales and folklore. It was the weirdest thing, to see two ten-year-olds with their noses in books all day, but Lacey wasn’t questioning it, especially since they brought with them some variation of Emma Swan, Neal Cassidy, and August Booth. Most days, Lacey didn’t see anyone at all, so there was that.

If Regina seemed a bit more on edge than usual, a polite “please-and-thank-you” usually got her to remember her manners and back off.

“She’s the Evil Queen,” Dani insisted for the thousandth time. “How do you get her to do what you want all the time?”

Lacey shrugged. “Just polite, I guess.”

Dani and Henry looked skeptical, and went back to their books. Neal Cassidy, who always seemed to be looking over his shoulder for something that wasn’t there, was with them that day, reading and keeping an eye on the kids.

“I still think she’s Belle,” Henry whispered a little too loudly to not be heard.

“But then who’s the Beast?” Dani wanted to know.

“Rumpelstiltskin,” Henry insisted. “We just have to find him.”

Neal visibly flinched, but Lacey sighed. She knew _that_ feeling well.

“Sure I can’t help you find something you _haven’t_ read a million times before?” she asked Neal. He grinned up at her and something about it was so familiar she couldn’t breathe for a moment.

“Nah. I know what I like. Besides, I need a comfort book right now.”

And if Lacey didn’t know _that_ feeling too well. She felt like she’d been reading Pride and Prejudice for thirty years now.

“Do you believe in the curse?” he asked, apropos of nothing.

Lacey was surprised. “I... well, I believe _they_ believe in it. And I guess that’s what’s important.”

Neal nodded. “I came here, terrified I was going to meet up with my father. I heard he lives here now.”

“Oh, really?” she asked, her interest piqued. “Who is he?”

“That’s the thing,” Neal said carefully, almost as if he was afraid of what he might say, “I don’t know what he’s going by now. I wouldn’t know him unless I saw him.”

“And you’re worried about that?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted with a laugh. “I guess I kind of want to just get it over with. See what happens. I’m not fourteen any more; it’s not like he can... I don’t know. I know I have a home to go back to, if things don’t work out.”

“And you’ll have one here, if they do,” Lacey pointed out.

He looked up at her sharply, then his eyes softened. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.”

*

It felt like it all happened so fast. One moment, she was shelving books and closing up for the night, and the next – _whoosh!_ A golden wind swept through the library, and she was suddenly Belle again.

Belle. That was her name.

The book dropped from her hand. She ran outside.

Everyone, it seemed, had the same idea. The street was filled with people, some of whom she truly recognized, and some of whom she had never met before the curse. Cursing her stature, not for the first time, Belle wove through the crowd, looking for the Savior and her family. She found them, eventually, in front of Granny’s Diner. Emma was hugging – or more like being aggressively hugged by – Mary-Margaret – no, Snow White, and Prince David.

“Henry! Dani!” Belle called out, waving as she ran up to the two children, who looked better than fine and happy to see her. “Have you seen him? I need to find him!”

“Who, Lacey?” Neal asks, stepping in.

“Belle,” she says. “My name is Belle. I’m looking for my... well, my true love. He should _be_ here; I don’t understand!”

“I think Emma and her, uh, parents are going to be handling all that out of the Sheriff’s Department. If you want, I can make sure you’re first in line.”

Belle shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. I’ve been in this town for almost thirty years, and I haven’t seen him. Not once. He’s missing, and I need to find him.”

“What’s his name?” Henry asked, looking like the cat that got the cream.

“Rumpelstiltskin.” Belle breathed it out like a prayer and, for some reason Neal looked pale. “His name is Rumpelstiltskin, and he is in a _hell_ of a lot of trouble right now.”


End file.
